Centaur was originally designed in 1914, for the Metropolitan Museum, which was part of New York’s Grolier Club. Bruce Rogers drew the design, based on the type of the famous Renaissance printer Nicolas Jenson.

Century Schoolbook’s initial appearance was in a 1920 supplement to American Type Founders’ large type catalog published several years earlier. This was followed by a much more elaborate showing in the company’s famous 1923 typeface catalog.

The first Dante fonts were the result of the collaboration of two men: Giovanni Mardersteig, a printer, book designer and typeface artist of remarkable skill and taste; and Charles Malin, one of the great punch-cutters of the 20th century.

When he drew Felbridge, Robin Nicholas set for himself the design goals of a straightforward sans serif with strong, clear letterforms that would not degrade when viewed in low-resolution environments. To achieve his objective, Nicholas adjusted the interior strokes of complex characters like the M and W to prevent on-screen pixel build-up and improve legibility.

Morris Fuller Benton drew Franklin Gothic in 1902. At first only a roman was released, but soon additional variants were added to the family. A condensed design was drawn in 1905, and an extra condensed in 1906. Five years later Benton finally added an italic to the family, and two years after that a shaded was offered as the last Benton addition to the Franklin Gothic series.

A first look at Garth Graphic shows the influence of pen and ink: its cupped serifs, diagonal weight stress, sheared terminals and flowing curves all suggest that this is a face conceived and drawn by a master calligrapher. A closer look, however, reveals a precise and carefully constructed substructure on which the letters are built.

Some typophiles trace ITC Avant Garde Gothic’s design heritage to the geometric sans serifs produced by Bauhaus designers in the mid-1920s. Actually, the design has its foundation in the first sans serif ever produced: a cap-only face issued by the Caslon Type Foundry in 1816.

ITC Bauhaus was inspired by the Universal typeface designed in 1925 by Herbert Bayer. The prototypes for the face were created by him while he was a professor at the famed Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany. In the 1970s, many typefaces were designed based on Bayer’s original lettershapes.